‘Whitney’ Returns to Low, ‘Animal Practice’-Level Ratings

Whitney Cummings’s self-titled sitcom Whitney returned to NBC last night to kick off its sophomore season, and the ratings weren’t great. Whitney earned a 1.4 rating with adults 18-49 and 4.2 million viewers overall, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Those numbers are right in line with the debut of Animal Practice (5.2 million an 1.4), which preceded Whitney in the Wednesday 8pm timeslot before NBC canceled it for low ratings. Like several of NBC’s comedies, Whitney is only picked up for a truncated 13-episode season this year (with an an order for 5 additional scripts), and with ratings like that, I wouldn’t expect the network to order more. Numbers were also down from last year’s Whitney ratings last season (3.3 in 18-49 for the premiere and 1.6 for the finale). NBC could have prevented all of this by bringing back those billboards.